Jeremy's Movie Reviews: Nurse 3D (Lionsgate,2013)
By Jeremy Freeman
Since the creation of film in the late 1890's film makers have always been trying to find a new and interesting way to tell a story through moving images. Most of these technological advances in the early years of film where often positive ones because of the contribution they made to making film what we know it as today. When the film world hit the 1950's filmmakers were trying to find new ways to make experiences at the cinema most exciting for audiences. When 1952 hit through things seemed to change when director Arch Oboler directed a film titled Bwana Devil (Cosgrove). The film placed the audience in Africa during the early 20th century as they built the Uganda Railroad (Cosgrove). It seems like this film would be an extreme chore to watch in 1952 when the film was released, but the film did something else that would change the history of cinema as we know it. Oboler decided to shoot the entire film in a new system titled Natural Vision 3D which required the audiences to wear a pair of glasses that made them feel like they were part of the narrative. When the film finally premiered in Los Angles in November 1952 the results were mind blowing, audiences were flocking out in droves to experience this new technology, the 3D craze was born.
Now my experience's with 3D have often been negative ones, the gimmick has always left a bad taste in my mouth because film makers were often just making their film 3D in post production to make a quick buck. It is in very unique cases that I will decide to see a film in 3D over 2D. One of these experiences I had popped up in 2009 when I sat down to watch the remake to the 1981 classic My Bloody Valentine. When I heard that the film was going to be shot entirely in 3D I was really skeptical. How could a horror film that is shot in 3D be somewhat tolerable? I mean the only experience that I had with a 3D horror film was in Friday the 13th Part 3 which required those stupid blue and red glasses. I though that since this new era of 3D got rid of those stupid red and blue glasses that maybe My Bloody Valentine would actually be something that I could stand. While I admit that it was a hell of a lot better than Friday the 13th Part 3, it still just left a bad taste in my mouth because the film could have been shot in 2D and been just effective. Needless to say my thoughts about 3D will always be quite negative. When I heard in late 2013 that a new 3D horror film was currently being shot I knew that it was one I was going to pass up. Well a few days ago when I was trying to find something new to watch I walked passed this film that I remembered passing up a few years ago because of its 3D, when it got released to home media it was converted back to 2D and I decided to give it a chance.
The film was called
Nurse, I figured with a generic title that I was going to most likely get a generic film about a nurse that goes insane. This mostly what the film is about but it puts an interesting twist on the typical slasher conventions that I really never lost interest in the story. The film starts off with an interesting shot of our main character Abby Russel (Paz De La Huerta) standing in front of a mirror in sexy nightclub wear as she talks about bring justice to men who cheat on their wives. At this moment I was thinking to myself "Well I guess she at lease has an objective now of why she is killing all these men instead of just slashing them away". It's only when La Huerta starts to talk for the first time that the main issue I have with the film comes into play. Her English is not as strong as most actresses in American films are today, I understand this is only the first dialogue scene in the film and it may get better but I am not expecting much as the film continues. The film then cuts to a married man offering to buy La Huerta a drink, she quickly notices the wedding ring on the mans finger and decides to offer him some "pleasure time" for buying her the drink. Of course we all know what is coming and the results were disappointing. The kill itself was not a disappointing one put the fact that it was entirely in CGI made the film start off with a few marks against it. It makes me angry that awesome film makers like Dustin Mills can create amazing effects on such a little budget but a film that has a major studio backing it has to cop out and use shitty computer generated blood just felt like a waste of time.
The film then cuts to introduce us to our other main character Danni played by the stunning Katrina Bowden. We learn that Bowden has graduated from nursing school and is starting off a new job at the local hospital. We learn that La Huerta is also a nurse at this hospital and starts to take a liking to Bowden and decides to take her under her wing. After a rough day both these women go out to a local club and enjoy a night of partying. With almost every party scene in horror films today someone is going to get drugged and get taken advantage of, once again in
Nurse this is the case. The film cuts to the next day and we start to see La Huerta start to stalk her next victim; Bowden's step father who was caught cheating. When La Huerta learns that Bowden's step father is a psychiatrist she decides to give him a visit. Once again throughout this entire five minute sequence La Huerta's English is extremely bad, while she is able to put words into full sentences it is often very hard to understand which ultimately made me turn on the subtitles to fully understand what she was saying. The results though of sitting through this rough scene was a total payoff, the film makers decided to change from the shitty CGI and turn to some pretty alright practical effects which made me think that maybe the film would turn itself around.
As the film enters the final act we are finally given a little bit of back story about why La Huerta has such a hate towards all these cheating married men. The explanation was something that I guessed the moment I turned on the film and gave me a feeling that the film makers could not have came up with a more original idea of why La Huerta is preforming these acts of carnage. When police start questioning La Huerta about these events she turns it off that Bowden was actually the one that was committing these murders. This leads to the highlight of the film which is the ending showdown between La Huerta and Bowden at the hospital. The stunts and effects throughout this entire sequence are really well done, it seems like these women are actually putting each other through hell then just acting it out. This leads though to my biggest complaint of the film which is the ending. The film makers just decide to end the film in a very disappointing way, it made me feel like they either ran out of a budget or time. We never get a full explanation about what happens to Bowden or the events that have taken place throughout the entire film, the credits just roll after the brawl and that is that. While I understand film makers want to give the audience something to think about, this film definitely did not achieve this in my mind which made me feel like the film had something going for it and then just ruined it in the last few minutes.
Nurse was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, watching the film in 2D and not in 3D may have saved it for me. While most of the 3D action was of course still enclosed in the film I could have seen that it was going to be once again a disappointing experience while viewing in 3D. If you get the chance to sit down and watch
Nurse I say go for it. It has enough positive things going for it that it is worth an hour and twenty minutes of your time.
6.0/10
Sources:
http://life.time.com/culture/3-d-movies-revisiting-a-classic-life-photo-of-a-rapt-film-audience/#1
